Inside the Braves with MLB.com's Mark Bowman

Hanson searching for consistency

After watching Tommy Hanson struggle again during last night’s loss to the Brewers, Chipper Jones said, “For the first three or four innings, they were swinging like they knew what was coming.”

There’s obviously a chance that Hanson has been tipping his pitches. But his problems seem to primarily stem from the fact that he’s had trouble finding a consistent release point. This seemingly led to him throwing more sliders than normal on Friday night.

Instead of simply referring to Hanson’s inconsistencies as a sophomore slump, it might be better to describe them as a product of one of the disadvantages created by a 6-foot-6 frame.

While this might not have been a problem last year, Hanson has certainly had plenty of trouble keeping his lanky frame in sync with many of his deliveries this year.

This is not a problem that will be fixed overnight. But by the time October rolls around, the Braves will need him to be ready to serve as one of the horses that could carry them through the postseason.

Man, I don’t know what pinhead in the Braves organization is comparing Corey Hart to Frenchy. It sounds like FW trying to cover his tracks for not trading for Hart. Milwaukee asked for a big prospect and Frank went crying to the media. I guess he was expecting to trade for the hottest power hitter in MLB by throwing in our failed projects like McLouth, JoJo and some of our other minor league junk. Maybe he should have added some bats and balls to sweeten the deal.

I think that the comparison is because Corey hit nowhere near what he is doing now (12HR 48RBI in 2009). But I don’t agree that he’s another Francouer because Frenchy only put up one year of 20+ HR, Corey is already on his 3rd (in 4 years). I don’t think its necessarily a “conspiracy theory” i think that the Braves are hesistant to let go of their prospects and are trying figure out if Hart is worth the investment. I think they are terrified of being burned again… (ala: Tex deal)

Yeah, he had to have said something. I didn’t like the way that Fielder took his time leaving the field after trying to run down Gonzo.
OK, there were hits and missed opportunities tonight, but this loss falls on the pitching. Three walks in one inning (one w/bases loaded) is inexcusable on the part of Hudson.

Bill, it was 83 degrees at game time… hardly sweltering. Nevertheless, I won’t argue that he must have been tired, especially once Fielder went deep.
One thing about Hudson, though, is that his numbers are worse when he pitches on long rest. Add in the transcontinental travel, and it’s a recipe for more fatigue.

Papi, did ya ever think that in the last half of July, in sweltering heat, 4 months of playing time after a year and a half TJ layoff, that Huddy might be a little tired. Bobby’s pitching management game has gone in the tank, ever since Leo left. His bullpen management was horrific even during that time but at least the starters got looked after. Now we are giving Medlen 17 days between starts, God knows what we are doing with Kawakami. Huddy was spent before that inning ever started. It was obvious with his pitches to begin the inning. But Bobby left him out there to fry long past when it was obvious. This one ain’t on Huddy’s head. Cox got the loss tonite.

Agreed, Huddy, probably should’ve been taken out. I thought he got cheated a bit on the 3rd ball, but that’s how it goes. We haven’t exactly brought the lumber to these two lefties. . . . I’m just saying, our lineup against LHP isn’t exactly turning heads. But again, we can’t get that timely hit… Diaz leads off with a double and he is left there, not even a sac fly to get him to 3rd…..another lefty going for the brew crew tomorrow if i’m not mistaken.

Jonny is now 6th on club in innings pitched and 4th in games for a pitcher. He didn’t even come up until mid April. Bobby is gonna burn out this bright star, if he keeps this up. I mean we have 4 relievers who pitch all the time and 3 who sit on their keisters. Now O’Flaherty has got the swine flu or chronic fatigue syndrome. Someone explain to me why Chavez, that meat throwing Tampa Bay reject is sitting in the dugout.

And speedy, you are right on, we can’t hit lefties to save our life right now. Glaus has cooled. Martin went through a little slump and Diaz is just getting going again. Other than that we are clueless. Or LHBs are not picking up the slack but as FW says “most of the pitchers are right handed”. What happens when we get a “short” series and someone throws 3 lefties at us. Always the bridesmaid and VERY SELDOM the bride.

Speedy, we face Manny Parra tomorrow. Our average against LH starters isn’t necessarily that low compared to RH starters… but our production numbers are disproportionately lower. It’s like we can’t really square up on any LH starters for whatever reason. We’ll get out of it though.
Bill, I also agree that the timestamp sucks on this blog.

First Escobar do the Braves see ayone else being traded like Minor or Dunn for Hart but do they need to add another player to sweeten that deal and maybe get another person in the deal like ingelett or craig counsell or maybe add another pithcing propesct and jordan scafer and get the future cf and get Carlos Gomez.

I’m sure our average isn’t that bad against lefties. We always seem to get a hit, but then we leave him stranded out there. I love how this team wears down starting pitchers, but we can’t go scoreless through 6 innings and always hope to get to the other teams bullpen to do damage. Both Hart and Cody Ross have a good average against lefties (hart having the higher average). I think if we don’t want to pay the price for Hart, we should at least pick up Ross.

Why is Moylan out there?? Can Kawakami not hold an 8 run lead??? Oh sorry I lost my head. How about gasoline Chavez. Doesn’t he get to pitch in blowouts anymore? Our BP is like “A Tale of Two Cities” It has the best of pitchers, it has the worst of pitchers”

I would like to see Diaz getting some ABs against RH. Ever since a torrid start Hinske is hitting around 230 against righties. Diaz can do better. Hinske can get some action filling in for Glaus at first base and maybe one start a week in LF, but Diaz should be the guy. Remember how good he played last year during that amazing run at the end of the season when he played every day.

Nice to see Lowe with another good outing. Even though he did not go deep, he pitched well.

Tough Padres team coming to town so they need to be on their game to compete.

I think Moylan was out there because bobby always likes to get bullpen guys back in ASAP if they get roughed up a bit. As for Chavez, he’s garbage…looks like garbage and pitches like garbage. He can’t get it through his thick skull that he can’t throw it through the bat, you have to have command AND velocity.
Papi, don’t think that it is a question of hitting “hard throwing lefties”. We had some really good at bats today against an up and down pitcher. We forced him to throw strikes, and he appeared to have Chavez syndrome to where his strikes caught alot of the plate. Fortunately for us, we didn’t miss the gifts he delivered.
I’m glad to see Matty hitting the ball so well, if he keeps it up, we may not need another bat after all. However, we really need Heyward to get some better wood on the ball. He appears to be ok with his timing at this point, he just isn’t catching all the ball, but that will come.
By the way, I think Gonzalez and Prado make an excellent double play combo. Kind of reminded me of the Lemke-Blauser days….

True, speedy. Hey, I’ll take it without having to figure it out. But I think you nailed it by saying “we forced him to throw strikes.” We don’t usually seem to do that against lefties, which is why senior citizens like Moyer can throw complete games against us (except for last time out).

Speedy, with all due respect. Gonzo muffed at least 3 groundballs over the course of the weekend. He got some hometown scoring but 2 of the 3 were routine grounders. The 3rd was an avg. out. The old man is missing range and seems to be real tight, might just be new team stuff but it’s worth keeping an eye on.
Parra was throwing meat today. We did a good job hitting his mistakes but I think it would be an errant quest to extrapolate across any sector of LHP(hard throwers, slider slims, or curve ball Charlies). You have have to look at a much bigger sample.

Bill, I was not necessarily referring to Gonzo’s defense as a whole, I meant the ease with how he and Prado turn a double play. They both give great feeds and both have a quick turn. I see your point about his range, but the guy is 33 years old, so I don’t think that is a big surpise….and I’m sure there is that need to try and impress, especially since he went from a team with no shot to a 1st place team.
Good point about the meat slinging today. But sometimes, its games like today that can give a team the confidence to swing the sticks…
It’s great to see Mac so zoned in lately, I just hope we can get Heyward and Glaus going around him and we will have a very tough lineup. Considering we already have Diaz and Infante swinging the sticks well. And then there’s that Prado guy, even when he’s slumping he gets on base….not bad.

Well, Gonzo did really well in TO, must be Atlanta, cause Escobar, has already made some sweet plays in the fiield and hit a grand slam today. Hitting over 400 since coming to the Jays. What do you guys do to good players down there, keep on and firsr place will just be a memory…

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